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Happy Independence Day!
Thomas Paine, a founding father
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"It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry."
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776
Jul 2: Blog: Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan complains about stories on secret meetings, then goes into secret meeting
CLEVELAND -- "The newspaper examined minutes from the last nine months of meetings and found that the commissioners,[Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan and fellow Commissioners Peter Lawson Jones and Jimmy Dimora] citing one exemption after another to the state's open-meeting laws, went into executive sessions during 33 of 38 meetings.... For the story, Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action, said commissioners should handle more business in public given that Commissioner Jimmy Dimora and Auditor Frank Russo are focuses of a sweeping public corruption investigation of county government.
'I'm surprised they didn't attempt to create as open a process as possible at that point,' Turcer said. "It shows a lack of shame,'" Joe Guillen, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jul 2: Republicans to Bachmann: End census boycott
"It seems even her fellow Republican members of Congress have given up trying to understand Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, much less her incoherent opposition to the U.S. Census. Bachmann has refused to fill out her census form based on her conspiracy theories about President Obama and her fears about the community development organization ACORN, and has even linked the collection of census data to the internment of Japanese civilians in the U.S. during World War II in an attempt to suggest that the same thing could happen.
But while Bachmann's views might not be too crazy for Glenn Beck, three of her Republican colleagues have clearly had enough. In a somewhat unusual step for the GOP, Wednesday, Reps. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and John Mica, R-Fla., issued a highly condemnatory statement about Bachmann's position on the census. They argue that by not filling out the form, Bachmann and those who agree with her views on the census increase the risk that the government will use the data for partisan political purposes, Vincent Rossmeier, Salon.com.
Jul 2: Editorial: Cuyahoga County politicians unwittingly bolster case for reform
CLEVELAND -- " The news that in recent months the Cuyahoga County commissioners spent twice as much time doing the public's business behind closed doors as they did in public fuels the imperative for a sensible change in how the county's leadership operates.
The Board of Commissioners suffers from overlapping and sometimes conflicting roles: It makes policy and allocates money like a legislative body, and also functions as an administrative body, handling things like personnel and legal matters, or real estate transactions. One result of that duality is a habit of long executive sessions and relatively perfunctory public meetings.
A coalition of bipartisan reformers has drafted a charter that would restructure county government for the better: A single elected executive would handle administrative matters, with an 11-member elected council functioning as the legislative branch, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jul 2: Cleveland lost nearly 10 percent of its population this decade, census data shows
CUYAHOGA COUNTY -- "Some cities will be toasting the decennial census next year, celebrating population gains and a bright future. But it's likely there will be no champagne corks popping in Cleveland City Hall. The city is losing people at an alarming, trend-setting pace.
The U.S. Census Bureau will announce today that Cleveland lost nearly 10 percent of its population this decade, the fastest rate of decline of any major American city except New Orleans, which weathered a hurricane and is bouncing back.... Cleveland, which has only just begun to discuss a welcome center, leads a trend that is carrying the whole state toward something lesser," Robert L. Smith, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Census: Central Ohio keeps growing
Lithopolis, Powell, New Albany, Columbus at top of new statistics
Erin Dostal, The Columbus Dispatch.
Census general fact sheet
Jul 1: Former U.S. Attorney Greg White denies politics played role in Cuyahoga County corruption probe
CUYAHOGA COUNTY -- "'Political considerations were never an issue,' said [Former U.S. Attorney Greg] White, now a federal magistrate judge. 'No one ever tried to steer an investigation to any individual. The history of the U.S. attorney's office is well documented for its public-corruption cases.'
White's words came a day after Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, a Democrat, called for a federal investigation into what he called a vast conspiracy to sabotage the Democratic turnout in Ohio, a key swing state at one time in the 2008 presidential election.
Dimora said at a news conference Monday that he believes the Bush White House pushed the Justice Department to investigate Cuyahoga County Democrats in an effort to discredit the party. He said federal prosecutors went after other Democrats in similar rust-belt cities," John Caniglia, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora says GOP conspiracy behind corruption probe
Mark Puente and Joe Guillen, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jul 1: Editorial: West Virginia case is a warning against mixing judges, money and politics
COLUMBUS -- "The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that a West Virginia Supreme Court judge should have recused himself from a case involving a big campaign contributor raises a caution sign for many states, including Ohio.
The five-justice majority didn't set a hard and fast standard for how much monetary influence was too much, and that bothered the four-justice minority.
The dissenters fear that the nebulous nature of the ruling will invite many more challenges to elected judges' integrity. If that proves true, the blame should be fixed where it belongs -- not on the court's majority, but on states such as Ohio, whose insistence on the popular election of judges cannot fail to politicize their courts," Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jul 1: Justices still wrestle with their biases
WASHINGTON DC -- "The U.S. Supreme Court claims to be above politics, and it sometimes achieves that aspiration.
But far more than we want to admit, the justices of the Supreme Court reflect the country's competing political tendencies and often reach their decisions not through the exercise of Platonic reason rooted in a careful analysis of the Constitution but by way of raw political bargaining.
The court's ruling this week on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act will go down as a classic in the history of judicial logrolling. The court avoided catastrophe through a second-best decision that leaves the core issues raised by the case undecided," E.J. Dionne, Washington Post.
Jun 30: Editorial: When ODOT speaks and hears no evil, it cuts out the public
COLUMBUS -- "When a Cleveland bridge that carries 35,000 vehicles a day has a problem, Ohio Department of Transportation Deputy Director Bonnie Teeuwen has to make calculations that are a lot less cut and dried than figuring structural stresses or materials strength: How much should she say to whom, and in what sort of tone?
On Sept. 11, 2007, Teeuwen sent ODOT's then-director, James G. Beasley, an emergency repair request for the Main Avenue Bridge that said, in part: "The localized buckling indicates that the lower chords are overstressed. Failure to repair these chords as soon as possible could result in the collapse of the suspended span." Chords are steel plates that support the bridge.
The next day, ODOT issued a news release telling the public the bridge was 'structurally safe,'" Cleveland Plain Dealer.
ODOT withheld fears about danger of Main Avenue Bridge collapsing in 2007
Karen Farkas, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jun 30: Column: Apportionment Board control is at root of budget battle
COLUMBUS -- "The goal is to get through the 2010 election with their blessed jobs. Lust for control of a single political entity, the State Apportionment Board, squelches statesmanship. Whichever party wins two of the three races for governor, secretary of state and auditor next year will control the board and gerrymander districts to enhance its chances of dominating the House and Senate for the next 10 years.
Forthright lawmakers such as Rep. Peter Ujvagi, D-Toledo, and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, acknowledge as much.
'To suggest that the political calculation of the Apportionment Board is not part of this budget process is disingenuous, because everybody wants to get two of those three seats,' said Husted, who has a bill aimed at depoliticizing the legislative line-drawing process," Joe Hallett, The Columbus Dispatch.
Jun 30: Editorial: Wrong approach
Don't use state constitution to set livestock-care rules or other detailed policies
COLUMBUS -- "The Ohio Constitution is not the appropriate vehicle for determining how the state should regulate the care of livestock.
Yet political interests continue to try to amend that venerable document to push their agendas. The agriculture lobby, with a proposed constitutional amendment to create a statewide board to set care standards for livestock, is just the latest.
The Ohio House, with the strong support of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, voted 84-13 on Wednesday to place an issue on the statewide ballot in November that would create a 13-member Livestock Care Standards Board. The Senate passed a similar measure yesterday," The Columbus Dispatch.
Controversial issue to set livestock standards has farmers flying high, animal advocates angry
Jo Ingles, Statehouse News Bureau.
Jun 30: Column: Somewhere under the political price tags is Ohio's budget
COLUMBUS -- " In contrast (to principles of Ohio's founding), the Whig ancestors of today's Republicans never met a business subsidy they didn't like. So, as the Associated Press revealed, state Senate Republicans want to give Big Oil (example: BP, January-March net: $2.6 billion) a tax break worth $20 million a year.
But Ohio's 'Democrat'-run House ladled gravy, too, by stampeding to let factory farms self-police their treatment of livestock and poultry. The aim of the Farm Bureau and its franken-food allies is to pre-empt Ohio initiatives by the Humane Society or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Forget that Ohio has despicably weak animal-cruelty laws. Assume - though you'd be dead wrong - that Ohioans who care about humane treatment of animals are pinwheel-eyed kooks. Even then, look what happened at a Statehouse where windbags can take a month to tie their shoes:
Strickland endorsed the factory-farm shield four days after the proposed constitutional amendment's June 18 introduction; on Wednesday, two days after Strickland spoke, the House passed it, 84-13. (Celeste, Foley and Stewart were 'yes' votes.) That's whiplash-fast - faster, even, than Speaker Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat, can ask for donations," Thomas Suddes, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jun 29: Cuyahoga County commissioners go behind closed doors during 33 of 38 meetings, review finds
 Click to enlarge
COLUMBUS -- "What makes the secrecy of Cuyahoga's commissioners especially troubling for advocates of good government is that it continues during the biggest corruption probe in county history, which focuses on one of the men behind the closed doors -- Jimmy Dimora... Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action said commissioners should have handled more business in public after the investigation became public 11 months ago with agents raiding Dimora's home and office and the home and office of Auditor Frank Russo. 'I'm surprised they didn't attempt to create as open a process as possible at that point,' Turcer said. 'It shows a lack of shame,'" Joe Guillen, Cleveland Plain Dealer. Published June 28.
Jun 29: Editorial: No special treatment
Lawmakers should stop kowtowing to the dictates of nursing-home industry
COLUMBUS -- "Ohio's nursing-home lobby is pulling out all the stops to preserve the industry's unjustified privilege in Ohio's budget, even going so far as to claim that Grandma might die if lawmakers alter state support to nursing homes.
This emotional-blackmail strategy has worked on the General Assembly for decades, but it's time for lawmakers to call a halt to it. That's the only responsible thing to do when they're looking for ways to overcome a $3.2 billion deficit in the 2010-11 budget, which is supposed to take effect on Wednesday.... It certainly hasn't hurt the nursing homes' cause that they are some of the biggest donors to lawmakers' campaign funds," The Columbus Dispatch.
Jun 29: Editorial: Line up for Ohio
Draw improved legislative districts, and the likelihood is, the state will get improved representation
COLUMBUS -- "A recently concluded contest to redraw Ohio's congressional districts didn't attract a flood of entrants. Then again, it didn't need to do so. The academic exercise easily managed to produce revealing evidence of the flaws in the current, highly partisan method. Of 11 plans scored under a set of objective measures aimed at fairness, all beat the district plan actually adopted by the state legislature after the last Census. In other words, almost anything is better that what the state has now.
The League of Women Voters of Ohio, Common Cause Ohio, Ohio Citizen Action and others approached Jennifer Brunner, the secretary of state, to sponsor the event, in the pursuit of improved representation. The results, announced Thursday, should push lawmakers and the governor toward changing the ways both legislative and congressional districts are redrawn every decade. Much more is at stake than reflecting new population numbers," Akron Beacon Journal.
Maps, rules and outcomes of the Redistricting Competition
Drawing the Lines in Ohio: A Big Step Forward
Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.
Drawing the Lines in Ohio: The Devilish Details
Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.
Drawing the Lines in Ohio: The Structure of the Competition
Justin Levitt, Brennan Center for Justice.
Jun 29: Editorial: Contest shows real hope for better elections
COLUMBUS -- "How would Ohio’s legislative districts be drawn if politicians didn’t control the process?.... Specifically, reformers — including the League of Women Voters — held a contest to draw congressional districts. Under Ohio’s existing system, districts for the state Legislature are drawn by a commission that is completely controlled by one political party or the other, depending on which party holds what statewide offices at the moment. Meanwhile, congressional districts are drawn by the Legislature and approved by the governor," Dayton Daily News.
Jun 24: Editorial: Narrow escape
A critical provision of the Voting Rights Act survives the Supreme Court
AKRON -- "Listen to the oral argument in April, and the fair conclusion was: The Supreme Court appeared ready to cast aside a core provision of the Voting Rights Act. On Monday, the court ruled in the case involving a Texas utility district seeking to ''bail out'' of Section 5, an aspect of the law requiring covered jurisdictions, mostly in the South, to get permission from the Justice Department or a federal court before they make changes to voting procedures.
An 8-1 majority granted relief to the utility district, but it did so narrowly. It limited the option to small jurisdictions that do not handle their own voter registration. That amounts to a qualified victory for those concerned about the court acting hastily to remove a key tool in protecting civil rights, especially in view of the coming Census and the redrawing of congressional and legislative districts," Akron Beacon Journal.
Jun 24: Editorial: Hurry to harvest
State officials suddenly want a constitutional change for agribusiness
COLUMBUS -- "Amending the Ohio Constitution is serious business, changes made by a statewide vote achieving a permanency not enjoyed by statutes or regulations. Rushing the process, as the legislature is prepared to do today with a proposed amendment on livestock farming, merely increases the chances of locking in details that would benefit from a fuller airing, with future modification tedious and expensive. In a state as big as Ohio, it can take millions of campaign dollars to give voters even a cursory understanding of a complex issue.... More telling is a July 1 deadline for putting constitutional amendments before the voters in November, which the legislature can accomplish with a three-fifths majority in each house. Opponents, such as Dean Vickers of the state Humane Society, say the amendment would pre-empt an initiated statute his group would like to place on the ballot next year.
The Humane Society wants to phase out methods that immobilize animals such as hens, sows and calves in what it considers cruel conditions. He rightly fears the composition of the 13-member livestock board, with one practicing veterinarian and one member of a county humane society, would tilt in the direction large-scale farming operations. Vickers is threatening a competing ballot issue this fall," Akron Beacon Journal.
Ohio governor backs plan for livestock standards
Terry Kinney, Associated Press.
Jun 23: Justices retain oversight by U.S. on voting
Lyndon B. Johnson signing
the Voting Rights Act
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WASHINGTON DC -- "The Supreme Court on Monday left intact one of the signature legacies of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court, in an 8-to-1 decision, ducked the central question in a case that was the most closely watched of the term. Most election law specialists had expected the court to rule on whether a core provision of the law was constitutional, and many were betting the answer would be no.
The provision allows federal oversight of election law changes in some places," Adam Liptak, New York Times.
Court sidesteps major ruling over Voting Rights Act.
NPR.org
See copy of Voting Right Act
Jun 23: Nursing homes skilled at securing aid
COLUMBUS -- "At a time when nearly every state-funded service is threatened by a worsening budget crisis, Ohio's influential nursing-home industry appeared to have successfully lobbied for an additional $1.2 billion in state and federal aid over the next four years.
Amendments dropped quietly into the budget bill by Republican leaders in the Ohio Senate would boost the rate nursing homes are reimbursed for each Medicaid patient from $164 a day to about $196 a day by 2013, an increase of 19 percent.
Further, nursing-home owners persuaded GOP lawmakers to insert into Ohio law an annual rate increase beginning in 2013 -- a guarantee enjoyed by no other provider of Medicaid, the tax-funded health-care program for the poor and disabled," Catherine Candinsky and Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch.
Jun 22: Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson unveils 'new and improved' ethics policy
Mayor Frank Jackson
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CLEVELAND -- "Mayor Frank Jackson on Friday rolled out what he called a 'new and improved' ethics policy for city workers following a federal corruption probe that upended Cleveland's building department.... Councilman Mike Polensek said Friday that he thinks the mayor's push for city employees to understand the ethics policy is a good start.... Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action echoed that, but added, 'What the city needs, what Cuyahoga County needs, is ethics reform,'" Amanda Garrett, Cleveland Plain Dealer. Posted Jun 19; Associated Press Posted Jun 22.
Jun 22: Editorial: Changes already being made in the way elections are run
COLUMBUS -- "While it would have been instructive to hear all the details surrounding former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell’s mishandling of the 2004 presidential election that made the state the butt of national jokes, the settlement of a federal lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters of Ohio is the proper course of action.
A full-blown trial would have cost Ohio millions of dollars — at a time of a deepening state budget crisis. The lawsuit was filed by the league in 2005 alleging that Blackwell, along with then Gov. Bob Taft, and their predecessors had failed to protect the fundamental rights of eligible Ohio voters to cast a 'meaningful' ballot.... 'The agreement reached represents the best interests of Ohio voters and guarantees careful planning, evaluation and oversight of the process that will provide greater access to the election process,' said Peg Rosenfield, elections specialist for the League of Women Voters of Ohio. 'It is our hope that it restores public confidence in our elections process,'" Youngstown Vindicator. Posted Jun 20.
Jun 22: Editorial: Guidance, please
Ohio judges need standards for complying with ruling on conflicts of interest
COLUMBUS -- "The U.S. Supreme Court recognized a clear conflict of interest in ruling last week that a West Virginia Supreme Court justice should have recused himself from a case. An interested party had spent an extraordinary amount, $3 million, in an election -- not directly on the justice's campaign, but to his benefit.
The majority opinion, however, declined to offer guidelines for states on when other judges should recuse themselves, so the Ohio Supreme Court might benefit from setting some formal guidelines for Ohio's courts.... Ohio is in less danger of campaign quid pro quo than some states. Campaign-contribution limits greatly reduce the chance that money from one donor will influence a candidate: An individual or a political-action committee can give no more than $11,395.56 to a statewide candidate," The Columbus Dispatch. Posted Jun 20.
Letter to Chief Justice calling for recusal study committee.
Jun 22: Elections officials criticize settlement
COLUMBUS -- "Some county elections officials are criticizing this week's settlement of a lawsuit aimed at improving voting, saying it's unneeded and could hamper their ability to run elections.... [Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer] Brunner and league officials argue that continuing to litigate the lawsuit could have cost $5 million, and they downplay any additional costs or burdens while touting the improvements the settlement will bring to state elections.
The lawsuit was filed four years ago in the wake of the troubled 2004 Ohio presidential election. It argued that long lines and other problems dating back three decades meant not all Ohio voters had the same access to voting," Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch. Posted Jun 20.
Jun 19: Cuyahoga patronage practices outlined in federal documents: Crisis in county government
 CLEVELAND -- "Certain county officials used taxpayer-funded payrolls to give jobs and raises to each others' friends and relatives and pay back personal and political favors, according to federal documents filed last week.
Charges against three employees of the Cuyahoga County engineer's office show what can happen when a culture of patronage goes unchecked...
'It's like a round robin of gifts and perks and all at the expense of taxpayers,' said Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action. Turcer said she's never seen anything in Ohio as vast as the quid pro quo that permeates Cuyahoga County's government.
'It is this kind of thing where you're trying to put the puzzle pieces together and it's scary how neatly they fit together,' she said," Rachel Dissell, Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Jun 18: Ohio Redistricting Competition partners announce competition winners
Contestant Mike Fortner,
Illinois State Representative,
(Republican - District 95) |
COLUMBUS -- "Today the Ohio Redistricting Competition partners announced the results of the successful Ohio Redistricting Competition, a project years in the making. According to the partners, the competition provides concrete proof that Ohio can rely on an open process based on objective criteria to produce fair legislative districts in Ohio....
The competition was launched in March 2009 by a partnership of organizations and individuals, including Former Republican State Representative Joan Lawrence, The League of Women Voters of Ohio, State Representative Dan Stewart, Professor Richard Gunther - Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University, Ohio Citizen Action, and Common Cause Ohio.
After being approached by the partners, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner agreed to host the process, and to make resources and training available to the public. The competition began on April 10, 2009, and concluded on May 11, 2009.
'A picture’s worth a thousand words. The Ohio Redistricting Competition provides an opportunity for Ohioans to see reform goals, like compactness and competition, put into action' said Catherine Turcer, Ohio Citizen Action," Ohio Secretary of State
Redistricting Competition overview 
Ohio announces redistricting contest winners
Associated Press.
June 18: Editorial: Judges should step aside if there's a hint of bias
NEWARK -- "Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer reacted to the ruling by calling for his court to impose a state policy on judges to allow parties to request a judge be removed from a case if there's an appearance of bias based on campaign donations.
Ohio Citizen Action reports the top industries donating to the Ohio Supreme Court races came from insurance, the legal profession, health and manufacturing. A 2006 New York Times report showed that, in a 12-year period, justices on the Ohio Supreme Court rarely removed themselves from cases involving their campaign contributors and, on average, decided in their favor 70 percent of the time.
So we strongly support Moyer's proposal and think it's critical to maintaining the rights of voters to elect Ohio's Supreme Court justices," Newark Advocate.
Jun 18: Election-rules lawsuit settled
League of Women Voters of Ohio alleged state violated citizens' rights
COLUMBUS -- "The state and the League of Women Voters of Ohio have agreed to settle a 4-year-old federal lawsuit that argued in the wake of the 2004 election that the state failed to protect the right of all citizens to vote and have that vote counted.
Under the settlement, the state and county elections boards must provide uniform poll-worker training and complete pre-election plans for allocating voting equipment, providing security and other steps to minimize problems at the polls.
Elections officials also are required to better track provisional and absentee balloting, as well as post-election reporting of election data including precinct-level numbers from Franklin County and other large Ohio counties," Mark Niquette, The Columbus Dispatch.
Election settlement troubling
If you have been a voter for all or any part of the past 30 years, then a court settlement on Tuesday should be an insult to your democratic sensibilities.... In order for the league to drop the lawsuit, the state must promise to stop messing around with the most important aspect of our democracy and start taking elections seriously....
It took a federal lawsuit to get this promise? Dennis Willard, Akron Beacon Journal.
Ohio settles lawsuit from 2004 election
Challenge filed in Toledo questioned system's legality
Jim Provance, Toledo Blade.
Jun 18: Editorial: Think long-term
Absentee-ballot policy should make sense for all elections, not just August
COLUMBUS -- "Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner made the valid point last week that if blanket mailings of absentee-ballot applications go to any Columbus voters before the Aug. 4 special election, then they should go to all Columbus voters.
In declining to intervene in a matter involving the Franklin County Board of Elections, Brunner cited that principle. The board members are deadlocked in a 2-2 vote on whether to mail the applications to Columbus voters, who will decide whether to increase the city income tax. She said that, for all Columbus voters to be treated equally, the elections boards in Delaware and Fairfield counties also would have to mail absentee-ballot applications to voters who live in Columbus precincts within those counties.
She instructed Franklin County board members to talk to their counterparts in those counties and reach a common plan," The Columbus Dispatch.
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